Been dissing on key battleground states clinical reporters and analysts on the ground, trying to get a clue as to what will happen in four days. We will wrap up with the state of arizona. Tim host, tying together a podcast. He joins as to talk about the tar heel state. Why is North Carolina important this year, compared to 20 . It continues to be a microcosm of the country. Canave urban centers that. Nd become democratic the state is changing. Its economy is changing greatly as well as we move forward. A microcosm of the entire country. Polls stand the right now . Up by one, pretty much all way. 0. 7 initics average is favor of joe biden. 7 in favor of joe biden. Hase 1976, North Carolina only voted twice for a democratic president. Im in the camp of i will see it when i believe in. I dont think it could not happen, there is a strong chance it could. Host when you take a look at 2016 and the president s victory ere, three Percentage Points, votes. By 173,000 why is this race tight now . Host before that in 2012, mitt romney won 192,000 votes. Before that, barack obama won in 2008. After the historic win in 2008, the africanamerican vote, which is hugely important for democrats in North Carolina, dropped off a cliff. After four years of donald trump, from the democratic perspective, the believe is they are going to come back. We are over 55 of africanamerican turnout in North Carolina. The numbers are incredible. Because of that, that is why we are still this battleground state. Donald trump sees it as a must win state. Host what are the early voting numbers . Which candidate benefits . Who benefits on election day . Since we have been voting september 4. Absentee ballots went out. As of this morning, we have almost 4. 1 Million People have voted in North Carolina, almost 56 total turnoff. Turnout. 2016 80 over total turnout. Mecklenburg county, which is where charlotte is, that is at a very high percentage, over 90 of the 2016 turnout. In North Carolina, we have had a huge surge of unaffiliated voters. Unaffiliated voters outnumber republican voters. They are gaining quickly on democratic voters. We do not know. Most of them mean in one way. I have heard from people on both sides that they believe it is going to help them. Veryesday, we could see small lines in North Carolina. Traditionally, that is a republican stronghold. Host what are you watching for on Election Night . Guest we are waiting to see the final results. Tomorrow is the final day of early voting in North Carolina. As we sort through the demographics, we will have a good idea. We are waiting for 7 30 tuesday night. There is this talk about we will not hear results for days or maybe weeks. North carolina is going to until ballots always november 12 that are postmarked on november 3. We could have 75 of the vote drop at 7 30 tuesday night. If there is not a razor thin margin, we could know early who wins. 7 30 is when i am watching. Carolina start counting early votes before november 3 . Guest we will have those results as soon as they start running them through. They do not tabulate and release them. As soon as 7 30 has, we will no results. Mean fort does this down ballot races for the senate and the governors race . Typically we thought the senate race would follow the president ial race. Historically, that is what happens in North Carolina. We have had some drama in the u. S. Senate race. Thom tillis is the incumbent. He came down with covid. There was a report that came out that Cal Cunningham, the democrat in the race, had an affair with a woman. He has not spoken since. Cal cunningham was ahead. That has narrowed to where the president ial race is. Race, ray cooper, the current governor, a democrat, this is a close race. I think it is going to be closer to 6 when it is down to it. It is not affecting the governors race. The governor has been doing news conferences since march almost weekly. He has a clear advantage. Host why is it that the governor is running against his Lieutenant Governor . Guest they do not run together. They are separate elected positions. The Lieutenant Governor is a stepping stone to running for governor. We knew all along he wanted to run for governor. He does not believe in wearing masks. He has been critical of what the governor has done on covid19 on the shutdowns. It is sort of the classic republican versus democrat in North Carolina. Host we are talking with tim boyum. He will take your questions on campaign 2020 in North Carolina. If you support the president and Vice President , 202 7488001. If you are supporting joe biden and senator harris, 202 7488000. If you have another candidate in mind or undecided, 202 7488002. North carolina residents, please dial in at 202 7488003. Robert is first in greenville, North Carolina. Supporting the biden ticket. Caller good morning. Host go ahead. Caller anything to get away from donald trump to be honest with you. Country. Olina is trump what trump has done to the ,conomy with the pandemic actually what he is doing now, he is doing super spreader events. It is basically for herd immunity, and he wants to do that until the end because if he wins it, that is what he wants. If he loses, he is going to leave us in a bigger mess with the virus. He is despicable. Everybody needs to pull together and get this mental paraplegic out of office. Host two issues from that trump, the anybody but sentiment he talked about, and then the pandemic. Guest one thing he mentioned was these superspreader fears. The president has been in North Carolina almost a dozen times since august. Most of them were campaign events. He was supposed to be in gainesville last night. He had to cancel an event because of wins from the storm. He held an event in gastonia last week, which is outside of charlotte, 10,000 plus people. The Health Department confirmed to people at that event did test positive for covid19. They will not say, they do not know they got it at that event. That is a concern that has been talked about in the state. Danforth running for governor, he has held a lot of in person events. Many people were not wearing masks. Videoclear through the that they are not wearing masks. Carolina is a lot like what you are hearing with that. Youre either with trump, or you are not. Is, and this is cliche in some ways, where these voters in the suburbs and excerpts feel about this. Suburban within, you keep women, you keep hearing about that. What do they feel about the president right now . Do they care about his persona, or do they like that he cut taxes . Those are the questions that remain. Host joe biden is going to be in North Carolina on saturday. She is traveling to charlotte in North Carolina. Done in wilmington, North Carolina. You are for the bidenharris ticket. Good morning. Caller how are you doing . Host we are fine. Caller i did it happen to ballot because i travel that did an absentee ballot because i didnt absentee ballot because i travel quite a bit. Im not going to say i am the smartest guy in the world. When i travel, i primarily listen to rightleaning because it is kind of funny they all get the same script and then want to hear people supporting trump against biden. It is the same talking points. It just kind of blows my mind. Do you have an original thought or original opinion based on your own experience . You keep saying biden is divisive. Biden is going to turn us into socialist, communist, marxist. Can you make up your mind . Socialism and communism are different forms of government. I find it curious people repeating the same things. Look at me, im smart repeating something sean hannity said. Host what is it like where you live . What are you seeing on the ground . Trump i see more signs. My neighbor has the trump signs out. We dont really get into talking politics. Go out and vote. That is the american way. Host i want to leave it there. Wilmington, North Carolina, where it is in the state and who lives there and who votes the re. Guest it is in hanover county. It is a great place to visit. It is interesting because it is becoming one of the important districts that represents a shift from more rural to urban North Carolina. They are experiencing all of that. One of the dynamics that is interesting that he mentioned is these trump science. Signs. At these rallies, we have seen 10,000 to 20,000 people at these airport stops. We do not see that with joe biden. He is doing smaller pooled e vents where only certain media go in and observe it. They are doing it because of the pandemic. Do these events show true enthusiasm for donald trump and joe biden does not have that . Democratsa show, and are going to go to the polls and vote . That is one of the Big Questions as we watch this moving forward. Birmingham asks us, what is happening with the North Carolina legislature . Are democrats going to gain control of the senate or the house . Guest great question. We have a legislature that is controlled by the republicans, and our governor is a democrat. Since 2010, republicans have dominated the legislature. They have super majorities. They had a republican governor. They could do anything they wanted. The last cycle, they broke that super majority. The governors veto could come in question. The democrats believe they have enough to potentially take one of the chambers. Democraticwith operatives, they believe they have a good shot of taking the North Carolina senate. They hope they have a shot of winning the North Carolina house. It is more challenging. Republicans believe they can hold onto both chambers. It is going to be razor thin. That is something we are watching closely. Why is that important . For our governor, secretary of health and human services, many of his cabinet, they want to expand medicaid in North Carolina. Roughly three quarters of a Million People could benefit from that. Republicans do not want to. That is a key item that could make a difference. You have probably heard about some of the voting laws we have passed that have been controversial. All of that stuff could hang in the balance depending on who wins in the legislature and assuming Governor Cooper remains in the executive mansion. Host breakdowns of voters in North Carolina statewide, demographic, collegeeducated, white and black, etc. They are incredibly important to the democratic party. White voters, rural voters are incredibly important to republicans in North Carolina. That is what donald trump picked up on, uneducated white males in North Carolina in 2016. The question is does that drop off from 2016 much like the africanamerican vote dropped off 2016 for democrats . Are living in our growing urban hubs of raleigh. Nd charlotte and asheville republicans are dominant in the rural areas. Those suburban areas and the areas growing out from there are the battlegrounds for white women and white men and the growing population of latino vote in North Carolina and the youth vote. It looks like it is going to surpass early voting in 2016. We are becoming a diverse state in terms of the voting population. Both sides are going to have to work on it. Like virginia, we are trending blue. Host the l. A. Times did a series about the youth vote across the country. 0 young north4,00 carolinians have already voted, a 66 jump. We have done a lot of this on our show. This social Justice Movement led by young africanamericans. They are working with a lot of Justice Programs and organizations to make changes. Young folks are stepping up. I think some of these protests have spurred that to voting in the fall. We have talked to experts. They believe these younger generations are much more active, not afraid to speak their mind. It appears they are doing that at the polls. Host we are talking the battleground state of North Carolina, where tim boyum says it is razor thin leading into tuesday. At stake 15 electoral votes. Jeannie, you are supporting the president. Democrats, they can only tell you what trump has done wrong. They dont tell you nothing about what biden has done and is doing. They will vote for a dog if it is a democrat. Democratok at the states and cities, it is burned, luke, murder. They do not care about black lives. Check the pages. As far as your uneducated rural areas, by the way, where do you buy your groceries from . They come off the farm, off the back of the farmer. Has supportedp the farmers of this nation. Uneducated i say voters, i do not mean people are not smart. Traditionally, we are talking about whether it is a College Degree and beyond. Those are the categories people consider. This is a common complaint with a lot of elections. You are against something rather than for, show us what you are going to do. That is why we do debates. Joe biden has a lot of plans on his website. He has his tax plan, his climate plan. Sides go into the camp sun dont want to hear from the other side and that is where that comes from. How many people do you estimate are undecided in the state of North Carolina . I cant imagine very many. But the polls show that there are enough Percentage Points that it will sway this election. I think what is more interesting is not those who are truly undecided between joe biden and donald trump. Perhaps it is those that are designing do i skip that race, do i go to the thirdparty candidate, or do i not vote at all . Ecause im tired of it if it is true that the average that we are at 0. 7, those voters could make a huge difference if they choose not to vote for one of the candidates. It is hard to imagine that there are true undecided voters out there. I think cnn, the night of the last debate, was in davidson, North Carolina, north of charlotte, and they had a handful that said they were. So they are out there. Host freda in both carolina. Ok. Welcome to the conversation. You are supporting the bidenharris ticket. Caller i certainly am. I live in a rural area. In my area, there is not enough jobs. They dont need to lose their medicaid. And i feel like joe biden understands and another thing hurta lot of people are and 8 are hurting in this area. We dont have anything here but two players that are running. In North Carolina, people here who are homeless. Someone has to help these people. Does notur president have enough people. Also, [indiscernible] thank you. Is interesting. Talking about the rural area. When, thely, way back rural area was democrat. Then it reverse over time. The most important voters in earth carolina were down eastern North Carolina. They were conservative democrats. I think there are still a number of conservative democrats. Some who did perhaps slip to donald trump in the 16 because they are interested in someone that spoke more like them. Points andk talking political jargon out there. I think it attracted them. There are still democrats out there in the rural area just like your last color was from. They will be very important in the selection. Dont make any mistakes, when we say republicans are in the rural areas and democrats are in the rural areas, that is stereotyping. There are folks out there that are out there that could make a big difference in the selection. Host we will go to aden, North Carolina. Marsha supporting the president. Caller yes, maam. Im wanting to ask him where everybody gets the masks at the trump rallies that are staying. I know they are not on sale. Received thee have masks from the trump rallies. And another thing, the gentleman that called to talk about how he was homeless, that is cooper. That has nothing to do with trump. Cooper runs his state. Not trump. Trump runs the country. Degrading trump for being homeless, that is cooper. And if the media would tell the truth, they would know what the biden has been up to, and how he sold out the american people. He has received money from other countries. So why in the world would anybody vote for him . Now, the media needs to face up and tell the truth. Host i want to pick up on the hunter biden emails story. And if that is changing any minds that you know of, with just a few days to go before the selection . Is. T im not sure it i think it is firming up support within his own party. It has not been outside of the conservative news outlets like fox, it has not been in the news a lot here. Some would blame the mainstream media. Some would blame me probably for that. First of all, i think it is considered to most voters probably something that is pretty complicated. Has not been discussed extensively and explained in a lot of ways. But it is important to the president. I was for their i was there for the debate last week. Our standup position was three or four box cameras. That is all they talked about all day long, hunter biden. They brought it up in the debate too. I dont hear it a lot generally talking around here in North Carolina. Im not sure if it will have a huge impact, for better or for worse in North Carolina. But it is not being discussed on the ground here significantly. Theour callers point about masks, one of the press folks persons for the trump campaign, i talked to him this week, he said they do hand out those masks. Im not sure the ones that say maga on them. Essentially, it is up to them to put them on afterward. If i had time, one more point about the shutdowns for the person who was homeless. It is true republicans have gone after roy cooper. Roy cooper is the person who has put in these restrictions that shutdown restaurants and bars. Bars are still barely open in North Carolina. He did do that. Democrats will argue that it is because we did not have enough testing early on, we did not take it on early enough. Its press so much that he was forced to do that. The argument about who is at fault. Is that the governor or the president of the United States . Host lets talk about the competitive house races in North Carolina. What are you watching on tuesday . Guest North Carolina now is technically 103. Republican. Although i should say it is 93, because mark meadows left an open seat. Redistricting, lawsuits force North Carolina lawmakers to change the map. We believe two seats are going to flip. We are going to go from 103 to 85. A republican advantage. District two, south of the triangle, and district six, which is in the piedmont triad, i think the greensboro area, those will flip democrat. There are a couple of other seats on watching closely. District eight, richard hudson, he has run against patricia goodman, a former states of bring court justice. Has spent a lot of outside money. I could be interesting. We might be a cycle away from not being very close. And someone on the inside has told me in the ninth district, where all the controversy was in 2018, which runs from charlotte along the southern border east in North Carolina, and the 11th district which is mark meadows, both of those traditionally republican strongholds. Republican money has put into those in recent weeks. There is concern among republicans that those seats are closer than they think. We could have interesting races. For the most part, the incumbents or the dominant party is likely going to win these races. Host brenda from charlotte, North Carolina. Caller good morning. I want to tell everybody, keep your mouth off of my government paper. Im proud that he did. That close states down things, this virus would not be spread like it was. And i love my Governor Cooper. If trump had not done what he had done, people listen, trump has already made the statement after three years, if he gets reelected, he is going to cut social security. Im 74. What am i going to live on if he does that . Host its talk about favorability. For the governor. Interesting, particularly on the coronavirus covid issues. There is a poll that was released. Released in North Carolina. Interestingly, if you were to watch the ad and perhaps some of your callers hereto, it seems split. Either roy cooper has done the best thing to try to stop what donald trump has not done, or he is terrible and is shutting down our economy and is going to send us into a deep recession. Our polls showed almost two thirds of north carolinians generally support what the government has governor has done on covid19. They generally support what he has done with the shutdown. They generally support that in terms of a mask mandate in North Carolina. The section where there is less support, for a long time we were shutdown and we were allowed it to go what is known as plan b which allows schools to do partial in person and partial remote. They go through what is called cohort. My daughter is in school all week this week, then she will be out for two weeks. The support was less for that. I think that is because issues with your kids across party lines. I think a lot of people there are more people that are concerned that their kids are not in school. What we are hearing from republicans in particular, broadlly, the governors Approval Rating is near 50 , if not above. Host tom. Caller tim, your entire network is antitrump. I get new york one down here. You never say anything good about him. You never say nothing about the biden criminal family. That is all minor. In the future, donald trump is going to be singlehandedly responsible for saving millions of babies. I dont know if you believe in heaven and hell, but you better get right before you get left. Thank you very much. Guest thank you. This is a lot of the response we get in the media in general. I would humbly disagree with you. I think we are considered one of the fairest outlets in the state by far. It is not my job to say good or bad things from my perspective about what the president or joe biden has to say. I think we have talked about all of those things on my program consistently. You have talked about abortion. The Supreme Court issue has become a huge issue in the North Carolina senate race. Up until the Cal Cunningham personal affair issue came up, that was one of the top issues in the campaign. Thom tillis was Standing Firm with amy coney barrett, and Cal Cunningham stayed away from saying whether she would be a good justice are not. I think that has had an impact on some voters in North Carolina and perhaps pushed some people that were concerned about thom tillis to his side. Host james supporting bidenharris. Caller i have been listening to your program. It appalls me to hear people talking about, when man talking about he was a farmer. If he sends back these hispanic workers, who is going to work the fields . You better go right before you go left. You talk about the criminal empire of the biden family. This man is a crook. He told you that. He comes from a current family. A crook family. His kids are making millions of dollars off the taxpayers. Talking about the media, hitler and the rest of them cats talked about. Roy cooper shut down the state to save lives. Putin has shut russia down. That is trumps righthand man. I do not understand talking about the media, media, media. Who is telling the truth . I love the fact of what roy cooper did. My niece runs a daycare. If she gets sick, she cannot open her daycare. They going to have to leave their job to come home. Host got your point. Guest you saw where the divide is in the state and country. People are very passionate on what they believe. I think that is going to be the crux of where we go after november 3. Can we find Common Ground . It might sound hokey but i hope we can. That is what my mission is going to be after this. What this election is over, we still need to move this country forward, this great state that i love forward. I hope we can get together in a room and have good conversations and move this country forward because i think that is what we need after what has been a very tough time. I think people have been stuck at home for 7, 8 months now. That has not helped the situation. People are very frustrated. It is hard to watch. I have seen people arguing about things i never dreamed they would argue about. It is hard to watch. You just hope we can all come together when this is over. Host tim boyum, if the race is too close to call in North Carolina, at some point what triggers a recount . What are the rules . Guest important to the absentee issue, candidates have a right to ask for a recall when it is within 1 in the state. The absentee ballots. That is going to be an important thing to watch. If it is close like that, you have to have your absentee ballots postmarked by november 3. But now because of this settlement, they will have until november 12 to receive those. I think the certification in North Carolina is november 24. While waiting for that and counts, we could have a long november potentially with that. I dont know if people in North Carolina believe that is good to that is going to happen, but it can with how razor thin these things have been. Back in 2008, barack obama won, we did not have those issues of not knowing. Im not sure it is going to be an issue. But it is 2020. Host we will go to judy, winstonsalem, North Carolina. Caller good morning. Up on yourtching show. I did not realize you all were on during the week. Usually i see this type of show on sunday morning. The reason im calling to say i support very strongly the president that we have now. And the reason because we have he has done what he says he is going to do. I do not support socialists. I am learning that i am listening to you talk. You have callers call in. When they mention that they desire trump, you seem to contradict him. The media do that. As a result, i looked most of the time for good news, common sense about certain things. This man has not done anything. Joe biden has been in for 47 years. This man we have in today come in three months hustling, got sick, still came back. Nancy pelosi is an accident waiting to happen. I supported him when he first came in because i liked the way he talked. He does not bite his tongue. People have thrown thorns at him like jesus christ. He still holds up. How stronger can you get . He is not a lawyer. Thank god. I have gone into law. They are the biggest liars. That is what i learned from my perspective in law school. Host tim boyum. Guest the republicans and President Trump do not believe the media is being fair. That is fair to say that and believe that. I think we are at a point in this election where it does not matter what anybody says. They are going to believe what they believe. That is not to say anything bad about the previous caller. The power of social media is showing in this election. We are talking about talking points and repeated things from both sides. People want to hear what they want to hear. It does not matter what you say. They are going to respond how they are going to respond. Every single time i have a national pundit from either side, for example, this week we had on andrew yang. I got emails from both sides telling me how terrible i am. Im used to that. I have a thick skin. I do not get it right every day. No matter what we do, people are going to get angry. It is unfortunate where we are in society. Host linda, hampton, North Carolina. Caller hello. Host go ahead. Caller im for biden. If it was not biden, it would be anyone but trump. First of all, i dont think trump ever had covid. He bounced out of there too fast. I am originally from new york. I was born and raised the same year, the same month donald trump was born. I watched him screw new york. I watched him screw new jersey. And i moved to puerto rico. Puertoo watch him screw rico, it was horrible. He declares bankruptcy. That is all he does. He is going to bankrupt the country. Host im going to leave it there. Lets end with, should there will you be watching for any early signs on Election Night of this race tilting for one or the other . What should our viewers know . Guest if we get a huge drop of votes at 7 30 tuesday night in North Carolina, we need to look at the breakdown of whose those votes are. I think we need to particularly watch where these unaffiliated voters are swinging. They are the biggest question mark. Because we do not know how many of them are going to come up and which way they are leaning. I would watch those, and i think we may get a clue fairly early on of who is going to win North Carolina. Host tim boyum, thank you for the conversation, host of capital tonight, tying it together, the podcast. Thank you very much. Guest thank you. Announcer we are joined by americas out amanda zuck who is with the National Conference of that. Here to talk with us about the Ballot Initiatives that are popping up in states all over the country on this 2020 ballot. Thank you for being with us this morning. Guest of course. Im happy to be here. Host in general, set the scene. How in general do policy initiatives get onto ballots . Initiativeballot measures are voters opportunity to legislate. And they get on the ballot into three main ways. The first is that they can come from the legislature. Legislators themselves can refer a measure to the ballot for voters to decide. Sometimes that is a requirement. All states except delaware require constitutional changes must go before voters. That might end up on the ballot. The other main way is the Student Initiative process. Anyone when you are i or who wants to see a new law can gather signatures, collect enough, get approved and get that question on the ballot. The third option is kind behalf is kind of what we call the angry voter option. Its the popular referendum of veto, and this is when voters so dislike a law that they seek to repeal it right after the legislature has passed it. So we only have a couple of those this year. So the main member ballot measures, they come from the legislature or through the Citizen Initiative. Host and there are 32 states, d. C. , and puerto rico have about 120 initiatives this year. They consist of either, as you mentioned, Citizen Initiative or referral from the legislature. The top issues this year are election reform, criminal and Civil Justice reform, Health Issues and taxes, just on the number itself, the 120, is that about normal for a fouryear election like this . Guest no, its kind of low. So the number from legislatures is pretty stable. But the big story this year has been that the number of Citizen Initiatives is down. So in 2016, there were 72 Citizen Initiatives. In 2018, there were, i think, about 60. This year, there are 38. So that seems to be largely due to the pandemic. Its hard to gather inperson signatures when people are under stayathome orders, when were supposed to be avoiding interaction with other humans out in the world. So a lot of Citizen Initiative campaigns have been really affected by the pandemic and the responses to it. Host some seven states are considering changes in voting, even the midst of record voting so far in the 2020 election. Typically what are some of the changes that youre seeing or proposed changes in these initiatives . Guest the one thats popular is changing to rank Choice Voting. Voters in alaska and massachusetts will see that on their ballots this year. Maine, as many viewers probably know, is the first state to use rank Choice Voting in a president ial election, so i think we are starting to see more and more interest in alternative forms of voting, like rank Choice Voting. Another kind of aspect of elections thats been getting a decent amount of attention is on the ballot in three states, changing the constitution from every citizen can vote to only a citizen can vote, and that a state constitution, so thats on the ballot in colorado, alabama and florida. Those measures have got an lot of attention, maybe because they seem to be in response to some concerns about noncitizens voting, even though the requirement to vote does require being a citizen of the United States, so there may be get out the vote measures, things like that. Another topic that has been getting some attention is that california at least has a measure that would allow 17yearolds to vote in primaries, and thats something more and more states are pursuing as well. Host were talking about Ballot Initiatives across the country, so wed like to hear from you and what youre seeing this year in the polls, in your state. 2027488000, the line to call for democrats. Republicans, 2027488001. For all others, 2027488002. Before we get to your calls, give you a little flavor of some of the ads running across the country, including as amanda zoch mentioned, the rank choice proposal in alaska. Heres a look. Register to vote as a democrat or republican . The parties arent for me. Thats not my style. 300,000 alaskans are independent voters, more than half the state. But their voices arent being heard because they cant vote their true preference in primary elections. Measure two fixes the problem. Reforming our elections to make sure every alaskan democrat. Republican. Independent. Has their voice heard. So im voting yo measure two. So im voting yes on measure two. Im the former governor of alaska. In these uncertain tirgese the uncertain times, the last thing we need to do is mess with our voting system, our voting rights, our ballots. Ballot measure two does all of that. It takes away our choices. You can show up to the general election to vote and not have anybody there from a party or platform that you are align and had believe in. I want to vote for the person i believe in. And i want my vote to count for that person. I think alaskans feel that way, too. Thats why im opposing ballot measure two. Join me in voting no. Paid for by defend alaskan. The chairman approved this message. Host you talked about this, this issue of rank Choice Voting in alaska. But in general, whats the spending like on some of these issues . Guest the spending on ballot measures is typically unlimited. We actually have one of the highest spending ballot measures ever in california right now, and that is prop 22, which would affect workers, classified in the state, and i think the spending is about 2 hundred 200 million there. So thats the most expensive ballot measure in california. I think also american history. Host the National Council of state legislatures, does your organization have a few overall have a view overall of the idea of Ballot Initiatives . Are you in favor of that, or because theres been pushback in some media reports about the idea of using Ballot Initiatives to change laws . Guest we dont take any stance on policies. We design to support legislators. I can tell you that legislators, state legislators themselves often do not like Citizen Initiatives, because they are laws that get created outside of the typical deliberative legislative process. So they may not be quite as vetted to some of the longterm consequences of a particular law, and it may not have been discussed in the chambers and given the same kind of rigorous treatment as a law that the state legislature would pass. But we know that some legislators also do like the process and may support specific initiatives if they align with their own platform. Host it seems like theres been a number of initiatives in different states on legalization of marijuana. How much are we seeing that this time around . Guest most popular, again, there are five different states that will see measures about recreational and medical marijuana. So actually, in south dakota, voters will go from having no form of marijuana legalized to potentially having both medical and Recreational Marijuana legalized. Host weve got calls for amanda zoch from the national counts sit of state legislatures, their election policy specialist. Were talking about a Ballot Initiative across the country. Lets go first to westwood, new jersey. This is matthew. Independent line. Caller thank you, and good morning. In my state of new jersey, the legislature is trying for the second time, because it was defeated the first time, to legalize marijuana in spite of the fact that all new Jersey Police chiefs oppose it for safety reasons, and the states that have legalized it, for example, colorado, theyve doubled the Traffic Accident deaths because of obviously slowed reaction time of the driver and many more serious injuries. Mention. T even also pedestrian deaths are up. The problem is also, it is a high strength, the potency is very high. Children are experiencing anxiety, our young people, anxiety. They have hospitalizations because the stuff is getting infused into candy, like gummy bears and soda. The Young Children get a hold of it and have to be hospitalized for psychotic reactions. Its a disaster. Host whos behind getting that Marijuana Initiative on the ballot there in new jersey . Caller our esteemed governor, mr. Murphy, who by the way, put virus patients into Nursing Homes also, and the democratrun state legislature. Host we will let you go there and hear from mandy zoch. Go ahead. Guest sure, so i am not an expert on marijuana measures. I cant really speak to the specifics of how its played in and out colorado, even though thats where i live. But i will say that we are seeing more and more interest in marijuana, both from legislatures, from voters, and that, in fact, a lot of the ballot measures that are in traditionally red states, like mississippi, montana, and so there is starting to be some kind of wide spread interest in this issue, and i believe all those measures are polling fairly well. But again, i dont know the specifics of how new jerseys measure would be implemented if it were to pass. Host mike is in North Carolina on the republican line. Caller good morning. Host good morning. Caller just a generic comment on Ballot Initiatives. Im for them. I mean, i believe in our republic in the name of our country, United States of america. Thats how things were designed to function, that is allowing the laboratories of democracy to come up with different ideas, whether its taxation, whether its marriage laws, liquor laws, legalization of marijuana. You know, weve got 50 laboratories out there trying different approaches to things, and were seeing how that works because of, in a large aspect or larger respect, the polarization of the country, were seeing businesses and people that have the ability to do so fleeing from places like california, illinois, new york, connecticut, new jersey, because of high taxation, and theyre flying to where i live. Fleeing to where i live. I moved here 14 years ago from colorado. When it was still somewhat reasonable, but the thing i really wanted to say is, you know, we hear a lot of talk, and people still throw this out there, and it does have some merit, but i disagree with it, and that is i vote for the person, ok . Independents like to use that trope that im going vote for the best woman or man for the job. And i disagree with that whole heartedly. Years ago when i lived in colorado, there was a talk show host there, and i think hes still there, but i dont think hes fulltime. His name is mike rosen, a conservative, makes no bones about it. And he convinced me through his writing and his approach to politics, and hes a bright guy. That party trumps person. In our system of government, party trumps person. The reason for that is selfevident. The Majority Party in a state house or in Congress Sets the legislative agenda. Youve got to control the majority of the house that you are in, the bicameral house, whether its the house or the senate or whatever, to even get anything done whatsoever. The parties also have stakedout territory. If you believe in the trite the right to keep and bear arms, if you believe in smaller government, youre generally going to lean towards the republican side, though they havent done much for controlling spending, this, that, and the other. Thats what im just going to toss out there. You guys can kick it around however you want to, but i firmly believe that party trumps person. Thank you. Host on that, do initiatives often come about because of a lack im not exactly sure how to phrase this, are they generally of a partisan bent coming out of legislature, or is it more of this is something we need to put on the ballot because we cant get it done through the legislature . Guest when legislatures make referrals, usually there has to be some sort of majority consensus to put something on the ballot. As for the Citizen Initiative part, those may be very partisan, but they also may be topics that dont follow along traditional partisan lines, so one that i think is near colorado, theres an effort to reintroduce gray wolves to the state, just the western part of the state. I know people on both sides of the aisle who support it, and i know people on both sides of the aisle who oppose it. So ballot measures themselves dont necessarily fall in one partys camp or the other. Actually, this is a good point for me to mention, because i like the laboratories of democracy point that the caller was making. Only 24 states actually allow Citizen Initiatives. This is not a process thats available to all states. Voters in 24 states can use the Citizen Initiative process. A few more use the people veto popular referendum. But for the most part, across the country, the questions that voters will see will come from legislatures themselves. So there will be some sort of majority consensus behind at least putting this question to voters. Host i want to ask you about one that could have nationwide implication. This is the wall street journal reporting, their headline, inside uber and door dashs push to win the most expensive race in california history. Uber, lyft and door dash are spending tens of billions of dollars and flooding voters with messages in a neckandneck battle to preserve their Current Business model in california. Lets see some of the ads from that Ballot Initiative race in california. Just like that, when the covid virus hit, everything shut down, including my fulltime job. Food delivery saved me. Im able to pay our rent and help our community by connecting local restaurants with customers. Thats why i support prop 22. 22 protects the ability of drivers like me to continue working as independent contractors. Saving hundreds of thousands of jobs and helping Small Businesses who really need our services, especially now. Please join me in voting yes on 22. Uber, lyft, instacart and door dash wrote proposition 22 to create a special exemption for themselves from California Law that requires appbased companies to provide basic protections to their workers. Now they are spending more than 100 million on prop 22 to boost their profits by designing their drivers trite a minimum wage, paid sick leave, and safety protections. No on prop 22. Host what does that proposition 22 all about in california . Guest i mentioned this earlier , that is an effort to reclassify workers for appbased Transportation Companies like uber, door dash, and lyft, so that they are independent contractors and not employees. That will come with several different consequences, and this is in response to a bill that the Legislature Passed not too long ago that required that those workers would be employees. So the effort on peoples ballots right now, prop 22, is to just change that classification for those appbased transportation drivers. I mentioned earlier, this is one of the most expensive ballot measures in american history. Millions and millions of dollars is being spent, and its also a measure where the idea of the Citizen Initiative gets a little, i guess, foggy, since its not necessarily an individual citizen or an individual voter whos pursuing this particular measure, its big companies, big corporations like uber, door dash and lyft. Sometimes the Citizen Initiative may actually have support from things beyond citizens. Host and the wall street journal reports those companies, and we mentioned uber, door dash and others have spent a total of 200 million. In terms of national implications, all things like this, is it potential, do issues like this sometimes catch on like a Marijuana Legalization in terms of ballots in future, ballot issues in future elections . Guest absolutely. I think ballot measures are where we can kind of see whats hot, whats trending, and this is the first time theres really been any sort of appbased transportation gig worker measure, so i would not be surprised if we found more of those in the future in other states. Host lets go to linda from michigan on the democrats line. Caller hello. I just wanted to know if theres ever any hope of getting Ballot Initiative to put some restrictions on robo callers. Host restrictions on robo calls. Any initiatives like that on any state, in any state this year . Guest not this year. And im not sure theres ever been any on robo calls in particular, but it seems like it would be possible. Every states laws are around the Citizen Initiative process, around would let his what legislators end up referring to voters vary. But its highly possible that that could be something that we see. I think were seeing more and more technologyrelated measures, so robo calls would fit with that. Host a real change ahead likely in mississippi. The voters guide, what to know about the state flag question. Voters in that state, the magnolia theme in god we trust flag up for election in up for approval, i should say, in the state of mississippi. Lets go back to calls, arizona, republican line. Go ahead. Milton in arizona, go ahead. Caller yes. Host youre on the air, go ahead. If you can, take yourself off speaker so we can hear you a little better. Go ahead. Caller ok. Hold on. Yeah, i have a question but it was more targeted to your last guest. The scholar, if you will. I was just wondering, what is the difference between absentee ballot host im going to let you go there because we are on a different topic. One interesting ballot question, this is the providence journal, approves the bill seeking a public vote to remove plantations from the state name. Name changein a for the state of rhode island. Tell us about that. Guest rhode island is going to maybe change their name. It would still be rhode island, so i think that scares people sometimes. The official name of the state is the state of new rhode island and Providence Plantation. This ballot measure refers to voters by the legislator which would remove Providence Plantation from the states main. In an effort to deal with some of the racial implications of the term plantation. Host how often do states try to aange their constitution by initiative . Guest i think it is pretty common. As i mentioned earlier in the program, all states except delaware have to put constitutional changes to the voters. States, in their culture, their consultation constitution changes a lot. Other states dont see very many. It is pretty common. We see efforts to change the states come constitution every year. Host next up is paul in charlotte, North Carolina. Go ahead. Caller hello. About theestion california proposition for uber doordash, where they want to make their employees independent contractors as opposed to employees. They the reason that are employees is because this way they cant avoid paying taxes . If they become independent contractors, isnt it a lot easier for them to avoid paying taxes . Im not entirely sure about the initiatives motivations. But there would be tax motivation dependent on how they are classified. It seems mostly that this proposition 22, this measure is indirect response to a bill that the Legislature Passed, which would require those workers be classified as employees. Host they were interviewed recently by politico magazine. The headline on the piece, things this election will decide have nothing to do that have nothing to do with trump or biden, legalize rank Choice Voting, paid family leave, and a red state boom in legalize marijuana. Where is the legal lies question coming up . And what are they proposing . Guest that is in oregon. And it would be the first state to legalize this, and this is aurnt auspices of Health Department, so we can think of it as that. Those are both questions at least put to voters, and well see in just a few days what they decide. Host did oregon likewise in a previous election, in a previous initiative, legalize marijuana . Guest i think so. Actually, like i said, im not the marijuana expert, im pretty sure its legal there, but im not 100 certain. Host walter in arizona, go ahead. Caller good morning. Regarding the legalization of marijuana and Recreational Marijuana state by state, i notice theres a very big conflict of interest. You had the federal Government Holding this illegal, so these dispensaries have to deal in cash, and they cannot have checking accounts or it will be seized because the federal government says its illegal. Is there a way to get a ballot on the National Level which states that the federal government will acknowledge a states decision, and that state, if its legal by state standards, it will not be illegal by federal standards. Can that be done . Guest ive not heard of a National Ballot measure. In terms of legalizing marijuana or making changes on the federal level, that could be done and not have to be something that goes to voters. Im not 100 certain. Host clifton is in North Carolina. Hi there. Caller yes, im calling in reference to a gentleman speaking on legalizing marijuana, and he was talking about the increase in Car Accidents and stuff like that. I dont disagree with him. For 15 years, i smoked marijuana. Ive never had an accident. I know quite a few people in different positions that smoke marijuana, and they smoke for different reasons. Instead of taking medications for things like pain or anxiety, they smoke a joint, and that relaxes them. Host all right, clifton, question about, we touched on voting a little bit, initiatives on voting. There are several states taking up a measure that would apply to only a citizen can vote. What does that mean . Guest these states are seeking to change the constitution, which currently says any citizen can vote to only a citizen can vote. It seems like a minor linguistic change, since in the United States you need to be a citizen to vote. So these are kind of operating as get out the vote measures. You know, maybe playing on concerns that noncitizens are voting or that noncitizens would be prevented from voting. Actually the one in colorado, this is in colorado, alabama and florida, would have some larger implications, which is that current in the state, 17yearolds are allowed to vote in the primary, and if this measure were to pass, the 17yearold would no longer be able to vote in the primary. It would require that anyone who voted in any election be 18 and be a citizen. Host amanda zoch joining from us colorado this morning, from fort collins. She is the elections policy specialist with the National Conference of state legislatures. Thanks so much for being with us this morning. Guest thank you
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